Column 12 – FACE the Music by The FlyLady, Marla Cilley

Every time we turn around we are slammed in our face with the fact that our economy is in a recession. What we think about we bring about. I am not about to allow some talking head to tell me how I am doing financially. I know what is going on with my checkbook balance and I know where my money is going. I don’t have to rely on someone else to tell me what to think. I am armed with my own numbers and can think for myself.

Who knows why the media has decided to jump on this bandwagon, but we don’t have to follow it all the way to the poor house. We are in control and all we have to do is FACE our own numbers and adjust our spending.

FACE stands for Financial Awareness Continually Empowers. When we know the numbers we are in charge. When we allow the talking heads to tell us what our bank balance is then we are no better than an ostrich sticking its head into the sand. By the way an ostrich is smarter than that and this is a myth.

Are you scared to look at your checkbook balance? Do you know where you are spending your hard earned dollars? We only have so much money in our bucket. When you don’t know where your money is going then you are carrying all your money in a bucket filled with holes. No wonder you feel poor! You are not in control! Your emotions are?

You feel sorry for yourself, so you head down to get a cafÈ mocha to drown your sad feelings. Well guess what after you consume that over-priced, over sugared caffeinated cup of coffee, your bank account suffers too and so does your waistline! I have even heard on television of people taking a job at a well known coffee house to get their coffee fix for free. How sad is that! Creative but is it really free if you have to drive there and take time away from your family to get your coffee addiction satisfied. Why not make it yourself?

I know what it is like to be poor. My car has been my home, I have slept at the box office that I ran and showered at a friend’s house. I have had 13 cents to my name and have not known how I was going to pay for a flat tire to be fixed. This is not a fun place to be. I thank God that I am not there any longer but He taught me a great lesson; To do what I could with what I had to make the best of my situation.

There was only one point when I succumbed to tears. I quickly realized that those tears were lack of faith in God and the common sense He gave me. I pulled myself up with the help of some wonderful people who reached out to me at my lowest. I had to be willing to ask for help in order to give them the opportunity to lend a hand. They were the people at the Charlie’s Tire who notice that in order to get the flat tire out of the trunk, they had to move a bunch of imperfect sweatshirts my brother-in-law had put there for me to get rid of for him. It just happened to be a very cold day in February. I had already told Mr. Charlie and his son that I didn’t have any money and they told me not to worry that we would figure something out. About that time one of the guys from the shop came in and wanted to buy a sweat shirt. In only a few minutes I had $200 in my hand by selling them for a few bucks each. This was enough to buy a new tire to replace the one that could not be fixed.

We have a choice. We can believe the people who tell us we are poor or we can know what our bank balance is and where it is going. When the talking heads say these things it reminds me of all the years we were told that we were lazy and stupid. We are neither of these!

You are prosperous in proportion to what you can do without. Can you do without the Cafe Mocha or the cost of the gasoline to get there?

For more help getting rid of your CHAOS, check out her website and join her free mentoring group at www.FlyLady.net or her book, Sink Reflections published by Random House and her New York Times Best Selling book, Body Clutter published by Simon and Schuster. Copyright 2011 Marla Cilley Used by permission in this publication.